For just over a year now, I’ve been doing yoga on a weekly basis. When I first began, I was confident in my strength and balance but was sorely lacking in flexibility. I’ve noticed that as I get older, my body has gotten progressively stiffer as I’ve settled into a few distinct physical habits—namely, sitting […]

Every job has its ups and downs. In my own career at LASP, I’ve experienced tremendous success as the Flight Controller for the SORCE satellite launch in 2003, which was then followed by the horrible tragedy when the Glory satellite failed to reach orbit in 2011. And last year, I was completely awed when I […]

A name can say so much. River. For most, that was his name. But for all the people who he touched with his warm joy and love, River Dog was his full name. He came to me at a time when we both needed loyal companionship, and our lives were forever entwined over the decade […]

Just a boy and his dog looking for adventure. That’s how River and I spent this past weekend. With only two days to our avail, the 6 hour trip to Moab may not have seemed worth it to most people. And when you consider that by my usual standards, we barely did anything there with […]

It doesn’t happen often, but it’s always great when the whole Brown family gets together for a family reunion. This year was particularly great from my perspective, since I got to introduce everyone to Kelly. Here are a few photos I took over the course of the weekend: Click here to open the Family Reunion […]

With the summer of 2014 slowly waning, I decided to get out on some of the classic runs of the Arkansas River before the AHRA turned off the spigot. And to shake things up a bit, I invited a group of friends of Kelly’s and mine who wouldn’t ordinarily get a chance to paddle Brown’s […]

“Take the oars!”, I shouted to Kelly just moments before leaping from our raft onto the blue ghost ship that was careening out of control down the river toward Split Rock Rapid. Thirty seconds prior, a monstrous, ten foot high wave capsized the leader of our trip along with his crew of three and dog […]

Every once in a great while, the Colorado mountains accumulate snowpack much greater than the annual average and when the snow begins to melt, the creeks, streams, and rivers swell to peak run off heights piquing my hopes for a very special whitewater phenomenon. As each creek and river feeds into the next, the volume […]

For the past six years, my 1985 VW Vanagon Westfalia has been my traveling companion. I piled my kayaks and River Dog inside and hit the road in pursuit of whitewater adventures around Colorado and our great country. To get the old van roadworthy and up to my modern standards, I spent countless hours on […]

I always wished for better lighting when backing up my van at night, and last summer I built a custom system that provided that and much more. In addition to wanting reverse lighting, I wanted the ability to light up the area around my van while driving or in camp or while loading kayaking gear […]